Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Quotes
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The poor are the blacks of Europe.
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Society would be a charming affair if we were only interested in one another.
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Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, "No." To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.
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Women bestow on friendship only what they borrow from love.
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Sometimes apparent resemblance of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.
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There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and injustices of men.
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Most books today seemed to have been written overnight from books read the day before.
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Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.
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One must not hope to be more than one can be.
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In love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.
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Though we best know and cannot deny our imperfections, it is not for us to lose our self-reliance and true manhood.
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Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.
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Life is a malady in which sleep soothes us every sixteen hours; it is a palliation; death is the remedy.
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It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.
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The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.
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It is passion that makes man live; wisdom makes one only last.
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In great matters, men behave as they are expected to; in little ones, as they would naturally
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We leave unmolested those who set the fire to the house, and prosecute those who sound the alarm.
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Whatever evil a man may think of women, there is no woman but thinks more.
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All passions are exaggerated, otherwise they would not be passions.
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It is commonly supposed that the art of pleasing is a wonderful aid in the pursuit of fortune; but the art of being bored is infinitely more successful.
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The art of the parenthesis is one of the greatest secrets of eloquence in Society
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Vain is equivalent to empty; thus vanity is so miserable a thing, that one cannot give it a worse name than its own. It proclaims itself for what it is.
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Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.